Venetian Adventures

Today was packed. So many things to see. We are staying in a rather small 2 bedroom apartment. It works well for us for now, but the kids aren't sad that we won't be here for too long. Just one more night, in fact. We struck out this morning and found a bakery that claimed to have vegan croissants. When we got there they only had 1 left, so that was good timing. After our breakfast we struck out to find a ferry to take us back to where our adventure had begun yesterday: Rialto Bridge (aka Spiderman Bridge).

On the ferry we passed the above building with the cool golden ball on the top. We learned later in the day that it used to be used for customs. Anyone who wanted to pass a boat into the grand canal would have to stop there to pay for customs.

The bridge was incredibly packed. But it was still really cool to see it. Ammon enjoyed looking at it and the construction which is all stone. 

After the bridge we stopped to refill our water bottles. Every town we have been in so far has had places like this where you can get fresh water for your water bottle. I love it. Unfortunately, today this is the only one we came across and by the end of our day we were out of water and very thirsty.

The girls have enjoyed chasing the pigeons around. With as crowded as it is it's actually a big problem that they keep chasing pigeons as they get in people's way or the pigeons take off to get away and nearly behead people. Anyway, the kids all really liked the white pigeon we saw today. This was 1 of 2 that we saw that was mostly white.

We were able to get some gelato after we had crossed the bridge which we enjoyed as we walked along to our next destination: Da Vinci Interactive Museum. There are a lot of Da Vinci museums around, but this one was very hands on which was really awesome. We saw a few more cool buildings along the way. Well...I should say that differently, nearly all the buildings are interesting and beautiful, we found a few that we took the time to photograph.

I'm not sure who enjoyed the museum more, the kids or Ammon. Da Vinci was a cool dude. We got to learn about his artwork on the first floor of the museum, then we got to interact with many of the machines he made. Apparently, he wrote everything in mirror image in his notebooks, which blows my mind. He was also obsessed with building flying machines and with the screw.

He also designed some weapons. He created "machine guns" where you would launch a bunch of spears at a time. The design below was for a "assault vehicle" that would turn a bunch of sythes while it was being pulled cutting down those in the way.

Da Vinci also had a lot of neat bridge designs. We got to build some of them the way he designed them.

We had seen a really neat looking church on our way to the museum, but they were still having mass when we peaked in. After the museum we backtracked to see it: Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa den Frari. It had some incredible sculptures and artwork inside.

After the church we boarded another ferry to take us back to St. Mark's Basilica. I really enjoy the ferry rides, but Lu says they are the worst. Strange that she dislikes the boats when she says her favorite thing about Venice is the lack of cars. Maybe she is anti-transportation.

We had a long wait to get into St. Mark's and Cormac was not happy with me for making him wait in line. He didn't think another church would be worth it. When we finally set foot inside he was definitely impressed. The mosaics cover the ceiling, portions of the walls, and portions of the floor. It is absolutely mind blowing to me that this was built by hand. "St. Mark's Basilica began as a daring heist in 828 when Venetian merchants snatched the body of St. Mark from Alexandria, Egypt, cleverly hiding it under layers of pork." Apparently, they needed a proper resting place and so construction began and was completed in 1094. 

All the mosaics and tapestries have had to be updated and replaced. At least I think that is what the sign was saying in the museum. The horse in the pictures below are the original sculptures that were on the exterior of the church. Today they are inside to preserve them and replacements sit in their place.

I doubt that the view from the roof was the best view we could have gotten from any building, but it was still really fun to see.

After seeing St. Mark's we wandered a bunch trying to kill time before our gondola tour. We eventually met up with our tour group and did a little walk around the a small part of the city learning some things. For example, the gondolas were originally for the noble families and were all painted different colors. To make them harder to identify which family was being shuttled about they were eventually painted all black. Today they are mainly used for tourists.

The kids really enjoyed the gondola ride. Our gondolier was Luca. He chatted with every Italian we came across while going through the city. Mostly other gondoliers. We enjoyed it. We then sought out some dinner and eventually made our way back to our little apartment. 

 Both girls are sad we are leaving tomorrow. They have really loved Venice. Lucette is determined to move her some day. The girls wish we had more time. While there is tons more here that I am sure we could have seen, I think we got the gist of it and am okay moving on. I think the boys agree. We will catch a morning train tomorrow that will take us to Rome.